LATEST: Landlord to pay tenants £12,000 after judge slams ‘bullying’ behaviour

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A landlord in East London is to pay two of her former tenants just over £12,000 after a rent repayment order (RRO) tribunal judge said she had ‘at times bullied’ the pair and ‘verged on threatening behaviour’.

Judge Shepherd awarded Flaviano Sogus and Ralitsa Nikolova the money, which would have been £2,000 higher but for utility bill payment deductions.

Sogus and Nikolova applied for the RRO after they moved out in late February 2021.

The pair applied for the order against former landlord Jennifer Bridge after realising that she had not applied for an HMO licence for their home on Langthorne Road (pictured) in Leyton within the borough of Waltham Forest.

The RRO claim followed several months of poor relations between Bridge and the two tenants, during which they recorded several fractious and ill-tempered conversations.

Leave the property

Bridge put the pair under significant pressure to leave the property rather than follow a more traditional eviction process, something Judge Shepherd admonished her for.

“It is clear that the premises were not licenced and should have been licensed for the relevant period under the selective licensing scheme in place in Waltham Forest accordingly the Respondent is prima facie liable for a RRO,” he said.

Read: Landlord fines - how to avoid them.

“In addition… the evidence shows that the landlord and her partner were harassing the applicants with the clear intention of getting them to leave the premises so that [as landlords] they did not have to commence legal possession proceedings.

“This conduct was clear from the recording that the Tribunal listened to and indeed from the transcripts of conversations that took place.”

The landlord now has 28 days in which to lodge an appeal the decision.

Read more about RROs.

Pic credit: Google Streetview

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